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While supply chain scholars concur on the need to integrate supply chain finance (SCF) processes to meet ever-changing customer demands, it is unclear how SCF influences business performance in the presence of perceived opportunistic behavior. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the moderating role of perceived partner opportunism in the supply chain.

Drawing on the dynamic capability theory (DCT), this study investigates how perceived supply chain partner opportunism moderates the mediating role of supply- and demand-oriented performances on the link between SCF and business performance, from the retail industry perspective. Data was collected from Australian retailing firms. In all, 293 completed surveys were received. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted.

The results of this study indicate that supply- and demand-oriented performances serially mediate the relationship between SCF and business performance. The study also found that the effect of SCF on performance was higher when perceived partner opportunism was lower.

To respond to changes in consumer preferences and demand effectively, supply chain and marketing managers need to understand the complex interaction between supply- and demand-oriented performances and the key role of SCF in developing such capabilities.

The current study theorizes and demonstrates the effects of supply- and demand-oriented performances that can facilitate the effects of SCF on business performance. Also, the study reveals the effect of each dimension of SCF (accounts payable, accounts receivable and inventory finance) on supply- and demand-oriented performances. Additionally, the study shows the key role of perceived partner opportunism in supply chain management.

The paper seeks to delineate the emergence of demand chain management (DCM) from a theoretical perspective and to illustrate its occurrence in practice.

The DCM concept is examined empirically through a case study with retailers involved in the beef chain in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).

The paper reveals that the DCM concept derives from the supply chain management (SCM) concept, but with a strong emphasis on demand management due to the incorporation of the market orientation perspective. In the beef business in the Rio Grande do Sul, two distinct practices were observed: SCM and DCM practice. The SCM practice is tightly related to the traditional beef market, whereas the DCM practice emphasizes understanding customers and the sequential capabilities for responding to their requirements.

By establishing the evolutionary development from SCM to DCM, businesses will certainly gain insights about how to become more responsive, and this will improve effectiveness and yield more delighted customers.

Logistics and supply chain management has been elevated to a strategic level whereby firms can simultaneously achieve differentiation and low cost for sustained competitive advantage. Empirical studies have often concentrated on logistics management in developed Western countries, displaying a bias towards the USA. This study applies the competency approach to explore logistics in Taiwan. A survey of 1,200 manufacturing firms was undertaken in order to examine the relationships between logistics competency, logistics performance, and financial performance, using exploratory factor analysis and the structural equation modelling technique. Four logistics competencies, namely, integration and knowledge competency, customer focused logistics competency, measurement competency, and agility competency were identified. The research findings revealed that (1) logistics competency was significantly related to logistics performance but not significantly associated with financial performance, and (2) logistics performance was positively associated with financial performance. These findings also implied that logistics competency has an indirect effect on financial performance through logistics performance. This finding confirmed the “world-class” logistics competencies (i.e. positioning, integration, agility, and measurement) as identified by MSUGLRT (1995). In addition, it suggests that logistics competency in a huge geographic area such as America can have the same effect in a smaller geographic area such as Taiwan.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the actual state of demand chain management compared with its promises of a few years ago.

The most important literature on demand chain management of recent years is confronted with recent findings on strategies of the main supply and demand‐oriented firms in the fashion industry and on consumer behaviour.

Following Hoover et al. the demand chain is defined as “the chain of activities that communicates demand from markets to suppliers”. In this paper some interesting contributions to this debates are reviewed. Then, on the basis of remaining problems in the fashion industry in the realm of failing customer satisfaction, questions whether the promise of demand chain is not a consequence of shortcomings in the field of marketing – which apparently has moved too much into the direction of strategic positioning and information push instead of market research.

Even when some of the most interesting approaches to demand chain management and key developments in the industry are confronted with one another, these selections cannot claim to be exhaustive.

The conclusion, proposing to concentrate on efficient supply chain management, on the one hand, and better understanding consumers, on the other hand, helps fashion firms to focus their attention more clearly.

No such overview and confrontation, as presented in this article, existed until now. Also, the view that demand chain management in a way tries to fill the gaps left by market research sheds new light on these discussions.

Though resource based view (RBV) has been applied extensively in supply chain studies to examine how firms utilize logistics resources to attain superior performance, relatively little attention has been directed to exploring the effects of operational routines on logistics and supply chain (L&SC) competencies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal linkages between operational routines and L&SC competencies of Chinese logistics service providers (LSPs).

A conceptual model on the relationships between operational routines and L&SC competencies was developed based on RBV. In total, 76 valid responses from a survey of Chinese LSPs provided the empirical data for the testing of the formulated hypotheses. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to develop the constructs for the model and hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesized relationships.

Not all operational routines were drivers of L&SC competencies in the Chinese logistics market. Processes for increasing responsiveness are most important in contributing to building positioning, distribution support and agility competencies. Processes for increasing flexibility are only effective in developing positioning competency, while performance benchmarking has little contribution to competency building in the Chinese market. ICT support strengthens the relationship between performance benchmarking and distribution support, but weakens that between processes for increasing flexibility and distribution support as well as that between processes for increasing responsiveness and agility.

This study raises more questions than it attempts to answer, opening up a number of horizons for further research into the logistics market of China. Several follow‐up studies have been suggested, including a multiple case study on how Chinese LSPs contrive their operational routines to respond to the exigencies of market situations.

Findings from this study have significant managerial implications in resource investment and competency building to generate competitive advantage in the Chinese logistics market.

This research sheds new insights on the routine‐capability‐competency building chain in China's fragmentary logistics industry. It indicates that despite over three decades of economic reform, and ascension to the World Trade Organization, China remains a distinctively unique market environment with ingredients for operation success vastly different from those of the developed economies.

Housing has always been a significant aspiration of family expression and distinctly priciest investment by household. It plays a momentous role in the country's economy and so central to the societal well-being that is emplaced in the United Nation Universal declaration of Human rights. Yet in developed and developing world alike, cities struggle to provide decent housing for lower and middle income population. The provision of affordable housing is a major policy concern around the world with Malaysia being no exception; rising income hardly keep pace with price hike of housing unit and housing interventions has majorly concentrated on demand side leading to a non-responsive supply sector. Therefore, this paper highlights affordable housing issues pertaining Malaysia. It formulates Malaysian Map of affordability and conducts an evaluation of global housing schemes to better identify policy priorities for Malaysia. It's significant to harmonize supply and demand side factors in the housing market to ensure that housing supply fits the needs of citizens based on the location, price and target group. In case of Malaysia supply oriented initiative are of urgency in short and medium run. This must be supported by long term demand side schemes in parallel. Convergence of these two factors is essential for a balanced equilibrium and obtaining affordability.

This paper aims to use a lead market approach for each of 25 European Union member states (EU‐25) to assess the likelihood that locally preferred innovation designs in the Energy Production Sector will become successful in other countries. Based on the lead market analysis, it aims to outline implications for innovation management.

The paper identifies and operationalises indicators to measure and compare the lead market properties of the energy production sector at international level. The indicators used are taken from the Community Innovation Surveys, the Eurostat/OECD PPP and Expenditure Database, the UNCTAD FDI‐Database, the EU Business Demography Statistics, and the Eurostat Foreign Trade Database (Comext).

French energy production companies proved the most effective at orienting their product innovations towards the needs of customers in international markets. The companies in other countries within the EU trade on home markets that exhibit barriers to innovation in at least two of the lead market factors. Therefore, the lead market, France, should be the focal point for the development of global innovation designs. By focusing on innovation designs which respond to the preferences within the French lead market, the innovation management of a company can leverage the success experienced in the lead market for the product's global market launch.

Indicator values were not always available for lead market properties of the energy production sector in every member state. This was particularly true when it came to measuring market structure advantage and transfer advantage.

Market research on the lead market takes centre stage when product innovations are in the development phase. Companies in countries that do not have sufficient above‐average lead market attributes must target product innovations to fit the preferences of users in the lead market – in this case, the French clients of the energy production sector. The observation of the lead market can take on varying degrees of intensity. These range from simply making use of listening posts in the lead market to testing and/or launching new products there.

This paper is the first to apply the lead market approach to systematically investigate demand‐specific innovation drivers in the energy production sector. Its consideration of the demand side of innovation is of the utmost interest for the more recent strains of innovation research as well as for innovation management in the energy production sector itself.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors that influence the development of entrepreneurship education and attempt to establish a theoretical framework for the development of entrepreneurship education.

By using vertical and horizontal data on entrepreneurship education in China, the authors demonstrate the influence of multiple factors. Relevant statistical methods include variance and regression analyses.

The factors that influence the development of entrepreneurship education are divided into supply and demand categories. Data show that the increasing number of policies and the expansion of business schools are positively correlated with the development of entrepreneurship education, whereas the advancement of academia and the lowering of employment pressure are negative indicators.

The authors’ measurement of entrepreneurship education lacks accuracy because of scarcity of data. Not all factors that affect the development of entrepreneurship education have been considered, and certain factors with significant influence may have been missed.

This study is expected to help countries and regions gain insights into their policies for the development of entrepreneurship education and propel the development of entrepreneurship education by certain means. Business schools can select targeted educational programs to help drive national economic development and transition.

This study proposes a theoretical framework regarding the factors that influence the development of entrepreneurship education and establishes three models. The framework provides theoretical insights into the relationship between the development of entrepreneurship education and its dependent external environment. Furthermore, the authors argue that the existing research overestimates the role of policy when investigating the development of entrepreneurship education, which also contributes to the existing literature on public goods and development economics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of e-government reforms on street-level bureaucrats’ professionalism and relation to citizens, thus demonstrating how the bureaucratic encounter unfolds in the digital era.

The paper is based on an ethnographic study of frontline work at a citizen service centre in a Danish municipality, and draws on empirical material generated through observations, field notes, interviews and policy documents.

The paper shows that e-government changes the mode of professionalism in citizen service from service to support. An ethnographic account of how digital reforms are implemented in practice shows how street-level bureaucrat’s classic tasks such as specialized casework are being reconfigured into educational tasks that promote the idea of “becoming digital”. In the paper, the author argues that the work of “becoming digital” in client processing entails two interconnected changes in frontline agents’ practice: de-specialization of the task and intensified informality in relation to citizens. As a result, the frontline agent works as an explorative generalist whose professional skills and personal competencies are blurred.

The study contributes to ethnographic research in public administration by combining two separate subfields, e-government and street-level bureaucracy, to discern recent transformations in public service delivery. In the digital era, tasks, control and equality are distributed in ways that call for symmetrical and relational approaches to studying street-level bureaucracy. The argument goes beyond technological or social determinism to find a fruitful intermediary position pointing at technological change as having both constraining and enabling effects.